Christianity isn’t just lived. It’s celebrated.
That’s because our faith isn’t merely about doctrine.
It includes a plethora of saints, historical events, and divine mysteries that are uniquely honored throughout the year with appointed festivals (known as “feast days”). This happens according to a set rhythm called the liturgical calendar.
Just as the earth revolves around the sun according to a set pattern we call an orbit, so too the Church revolves around the Son of God, Jesus Christ, according to the pattern set by the liturgical calendar. The liturgical calendar puts the universal Church—which has been established all over the world—on the same page so that we can celebrate and worship God in unison as the one Body of Christ. It also places heaven and earth on the same clock, so to speak; it unites heaven (our eternal home) with earth (our pilgrimage journey). As we celebrate a feast day here on earth, be assured that the angels and saints in heaven are doing the same in tandem with us, but in a far more excellent way.
The church established a 3-year cycle to put more emphasis on the Word of God and open up the riches of the Bible to the lay faithful.First of all, each of the three years is dedicated to a different Gospel.
The Gospel of St. John is typically used for solemnities and during Holy Week, and the shorter Gospel of Mark is usually supplemented with readings from Matthew and Luke in Year B.
One of the simplest ways to determine the cycle year is to add the digits of the calendar year and see if they are divisible by three.
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****If it is divisible by three, then it is “Year C.” Once you figure that out, the rest of the years are easy to determine.
Here is 2019 to use as an example.
2 + 0 + 1 + 9 = 12. Since 12 is divisible by 3, 2019 is “Year C.”
This means that 2020 will be “Year A,” since it is a three-year cycle.
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Generally speaking, we can imagine the natural order as a reflection of the spiritual order, because both are revelations of the same God. Just as there are four seasons of the year that guide the life of nature, there are four major seasons that guide the life of the Church: Advent, Christmas, Lent, and Easter. The period outside these seasons is called “Ordinary Time”—that is, tempus per annum, or “time during the year.”
Advent is a period of penance and preparation before the celebration of Christ’s birth at Christmas, while Lent is a period of penance and preparation before the celebration of Christ’s Passion, Death, and Resurrection at Easter. (Technically, the three-day period encompassing Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday is its own liturgical season, distinct from Lent. It’s called the Triduum.)
The new liturgical year begins on the first Sunday of Advent and concludes on the feast of Christ the King (the final Sunday before Advent begins). This symbolizes the eternal truth that all things begin and end in Jesus Christ:
“I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”Revelation 22:1
The feasts on the liturgical calendar have different rankings that determine their importance, with solemnities being the highest rank.